Majo no Tabitabi

The manga centers on a girl named Elaina. When she was a kid, she loved reading books. And among all the books she read, there was a series called 'Niike's Adventure', which was her favorite. It was a collection of short stories about the witch Niike's adventures around the whole world, based off of the writer’s own life experience. Elaina liked Niike’s adventures so much that starting her own adventure became her all life’s dream.

Sometimes comedic, sometimes fantastical, sometimes a little dark is the best description for this manga. I guess it somewhat remind me of Kino no Tabi, but with magic. The storyline of The Journey of Elaina is very enjoyable, the manga shows right from the very first chapters what influences Elaina to become a witch, as well as her teacher that helps her become the person she is.

The Journey of Elaina is about a simple girl, who falls in love with a book so much that she decides to learn magic and to enjoy traveling just like the heroine of her favorite book. She is cheerful young lady that has had it hard in her life; being a hard worker she is, she has spent all her childhood to become a witch. Of course, being good at something, will make other people jealous of your success, but Elaina is not afraid to keep going.

All in all, this is an amazing slice of life that I have not seen in a while now. Sometimes it is funny, sometimes fantastical and sometimes dark. Do look forward to the anime adaptation, it is going to be amazing.

MANY valuable scenes where cut from the source material
-anime made it seem like she is an indifferent type of person (important scenes cut out that definitely prove otherwise)
-Elaina is truly a passionate and good hearted person


Came to check out the source material after hearing that a lot of information was cut out of the anime. Truly an enjoyable experience with an sweet MC.

Elaina is a kind and caring person. Cutting out valuable scenes in regards to her character (especially in the beginning of the anime) made it seem like she is an indifferent person. However, those scene that were cut from the source material truly showed how passionate and kind she is.

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina is a series of adventures held together by their shared main character, the witch Elaina. While the book has some semblance of linearity, it does not have an over-arching narrative. This is more of a magical travel log than a novel.

After passing the certification exam to become a full-fledged witch, Elaina decides to follow the inspiration from her favorite series of books and explore the world. While she sometimes gets pulled into events, she does her best to maintain an impartial and distant stance and act only as an observer. After a short period of time, days at the most, she leaves, whether situations have been resolved or not.

There are fourteen tales in this first volume. Some give background on Elaina and also on how one becomes a witch. A few are linked by goofy characters and played strictly for laughs. But the majority are standalone stories that have a mostly melancholy tone. Some chapters are stronger than others. Overall, the book seems more concerned with giving us glimpses into an odd and magical world. There are times when the stories present a slightly heavy-handed moral, typical of fairy tales, but overall they fall more into the category of showing the nature of the world and its humans without commentary.

Part of this lack of commentary comes from the detached nature of Elaina herself. In fact, one of the more jarring things to me about this story was the lack of a clear hero.

My natural inclination was to think of Elaina as one who would right wrongs or fix things which are broken. But she isn’t that person at all. More often, she flies away with her back to the horrors still occurring, or set to occur, behind her. Even her voice makes her feel distant from the events of the stories–she is snarky and judgemental. It is often at odds with the events happening around her. For this reason, I initially disliked Elaina. In the beginning I found myself asking, “how could you not do anything?” This was particularly an issue immediately after the first story, where Elaina seemed more willing to help someone in need (even though, looking back, she was only doing it because she was currently stuck in that town).

But after spending some time traveling with Elaina, I started to change my way of thinking about this book. It isn’t a typical light novel filled with wrongs for the hero to fix. Instead, it is a journal about a world with flaws and wonder to match. And all of it is narrated by this young girl who has a bit of a sharp tongue who keeps most of the ugliest things at bay by never getting too involved herself. As we traveled further, I found myself intrigued about seeing more of this world. And with the chapters giving us some more insight into Elaina’s character, I found that I liked her a bit more with each trip.

I suppose what I’m saying is, I ended up really enjoying this book despite myself. But it took realizing that the world, not Elaina herself, is the main character. Elaina is our guide, not our hero. I think it also helped to improve my thoughts of the novel as it progressed as the stronger of the stories occur later in the book. This could be due to the webnovel origins of the series as the author would’ve become more acquainted with his character and world as they wrote more.

I see where down the road, perhaps that might change. After all, there are some hints Elaina might be more than she lets on. Is there a reason she needs to see the world? Will her judgements after seeing all there is have larger ramifications? I don’t know the answer. I don’t even know if the author intends for any of that to matter. But I am intrigued.

In the end, Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina is not going to be for everyone. It’s lack of cohesive narrative and tone will turn some people off. But this world held wonder for me. It was a different experience than most light novels. And for that reason, I intend to journey with Elaina again. Recommended for fantasy fans who love exploring the world as much/or more than the actual stories told there.

"The Lovely young lady was a witch and a traveler. That's right she's me." Sums what this LN is about. Elaina is a witch who travels to different countries each chapter and tells about her encounters with each place and the people living there. There are all sorts of uniqueness of each country, and each of her encounters with the people can be comedic, mysterious and even emotional. This LN may not be everyone's thing as it is just Elaina telling her story of her travels along with a stories of her past in her journey to becoming a witch. It's a casual read rather than one with lots of action or jokes. So if you're into casual-adventure reads, then this is for you. I have enjoyed the first two volumes very much so far, and the art is fantastic. Can't wait for when the anime comes out!

This is quite an interesthing and original story.
Unlike many other Light Novels, this one has an interesthing aspect to it, which is that most of its chapters are disconnected.
Sure, such a thing could easily go wrong, but not on this Light Novel. While I'd recommend for you to read it in orther, there's no need to as most of the characters in each chapter tend to not appear again. Of course, that's not true for all of the characters.
Our protagonist here is Elaina, a witch who, inpired by some novel written by another witch, decided to travel the world to know many towns, peoples and such. In every chapter, she's in a different place with different people and on a different adventure. weather that be her having to find something she lost, having to help someone with something, exploring a strange characterist of some town, or simply on a everyday randown moment.
All in all, I'd say this is a nice story to read along some other story. Sure, Majo No Tabatabi is a great story on its own, but the way it's structured just makes it nice to read a chapter, see some sort of adventure, and then move on to another story, only to come back when the next chapter is released to see a new story for you.
This works great with the way most translators do their, well, translations. Even if the next chapter takes so long to come out that you forgot everything about what happened before, there's not a problem as the previous chapters hardly have much to do with the future ones. Added to that the fact most chapters can be read in around half an hour and you got yourself a nice and light story to read when you feel like it.
So, would I recommend this to someone? Yes, ablsolutely. If you're looking for a nice, original story which is light on the reader, then you got yourself a deal.

I came in contact with this manga by watching the anime.
The story is interesting: a young witch, inspired by an adventure book written by another travelling witch, leaves her home for a journey that will lead her in many places and countries, meeting new peole and learning from her experiences.
These places and people will put her in many situations, ranging from light-hearted to desperate fights. Each situation is related to different aspects of humanity: fear, obsession, insanity, love, laugh, conflict, and so on. I want to keep the review spoiler free so I will not discuss the stories in detail. My only negative abou tthis series is that while some characters are really good, others are not up to par with the rest of the series, not saying they are bad but they don't shine particularly. And Saya is annoying (to me).
Also, Elaina's attitude is strangely sometimes not consistent among the various arcs. All in all. a great reading, even if not flawless.